PRINCETON, NJ – Feb. 3, 2016 – Certara®, the global biosimulation technology-enabled drug development company, today announced that it has appointed Andrzej Kierzek, PhD, as head of systems modeling in its Simcyp® Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) Group. He joins Certara from the University of Surrey, UK, where he serves as professor of systems biology.
Certara established its market-leading position in QSP with the acquisition of XenologiQ, a UK-based QSP consultancy, in December 2015.
QSP bridges the gap between pharmacometric modeling and simulation, and systems biology. QSP combines computational modeling and experimental methods to examine the mechanistic relationships between a drug, the biological system, and the disease process. In combination with physiologically-based pharmacokinetics (PBPK), QSP forms the basis for precision medicine and can assist in identifying the best dose and combination of drugs for an individual patient. QSP is expected to have an immediate impact not only in large therapeutic areas like oncology, immunology/inflammation and cardiometabolic diseases, but also in rare diseases and safety/toxicology.
“QSP is a relatively new discipline with the potential to dramatically improve pharma R&D productivity,” said Steve Toon, BPharm, PhD, president of Simcyp. “We are delighted to have a systems modeler of Andrzej’s caliber join our rapidly-growing QSP team. This is an incredibly exciting stage in the development and adoption of QSP and we aim to have all the brightest minds on board.”
Professor Kierzek has 20 years’ experience developing computer simulations of biological systems. He co-presented the first dynamic simulations, including regulatory mechanisms and a genome scale metabolic network, in a human cell. He is now working to apply this method of mechanistic modeling to cancer. He also developed the software to create computer simulations of genome scale metabolic networks in bacterial pathogens. Professor Kierzek has had 50 papers published to date in leading life sciences journals.
Professor Kierzek received a PhD in biophysics from the Polish Academy of Sciences, and a Dr. hab. (Habilitation) in biological sciences and biochemistry from the Polish Academy of Sciences.
“Andrzej is a tremendous asset for our rapidly-growing organization, which already has teams in Canterbury and Sheffield, UK. His expertise in multi-scale modeling of oncology and immunology networks will be invaluable as we maximize our impact in these areas of highest need,” said Professor Piet van der Graaf, PharmD, PhD, vice president and head of Simcyp QSP.
Certara’s Simcyp Group is the industry-leading mechanistic and PBPK modeling organization and counts the majority of the top-40 pharma companies as its clients and members of the Simcyp Consortium. Key academic institutions, and global regulators, including the US Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, and Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency are consortium affiliates.
About Certara
Certara is a global biosimulation and regulatory writing company, committed to optimizing drug development decisions. Its clients include hundreds of international biopharmaceutical companies, leading academic institutions, and key regulatory agencies. Certara’s solutions, which span drug discovery through patient care, increase the probability of regulatory and commercial success by using the most scientifically-advanced modeling and simulation technologies and regulatory strategies. For more information, visit www.certara.com.
